THE DEVELOPMENT of west Cork’s fledgling crafts movement in the 1960s is the subject of a new book and exhibition to mark 2011 as the Year of Craft.
In setting out to profile the work of 22 local craft workers, Skibbereen-based author Alison Ospina discovered how the region became a catalyst for creative arts.
Her book, West Cork Inspires, tracks the migration of a community of craft workers who formed a co-operative movement that grew to become a leading outlet for top quality crafts countrywide.
The co-operative grew to attract additional artists from all over Europe, resulting in a blending of design ideas and techniques with local traditional, functional craft styles from southern Ireland.
Herself a producer of greenwood handmade chairs, Ospina has collated archived material uncovered in her research for the book to form part of an exhibition to celebrate the Year of Craft. Posters, newspaper cuttings and information leaflets produced by the artists during the early growth of the west Cork guild will be part of a travelling exhibition which goes on display at Farmleigh in Dublin’s Phoenix Park from May 29th.
The exhibit will form part of the 2011 Year of Craft annual congress set to attract 150 delegates in June. Curated by Etain Hickey, the exhibition runs at Farmleigh until the end of July, before travelling on to the Cork Public Museum in October and the West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen next January.
The exhibition will feature the work of the 22 craft workers profiled in the book, including ceramicist and print-maker Pat Connor, basket-weaver Norbert Platz, goldsmith Gert Besner, knife-maker Ruari Conner and textile artist and felt-maker Helen Stringer.
The World Crafts Council (Europe) will meet in Dublin from June 8th to June 10th.